In recent years, vehicles using a hydrogen gas such as fuel cell vehicles and hydrogen vehicles have been developed. As such vehicles are developed, hydrogen stations for charging a tank of the vehicle with a hydrogen gas are becoming increasingly common. As one example of such a hydrogen station, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2015-158213 describes a hydrogen station including a gas supply system for supplying a hydrogen gas and a dispenser for supplying the hydrogen gas supplied from the gas supply system to a tank of a vehicle according to a predetermined protocol. Such a hydrogen station needs to supply the hydrogen gas discharged from the dispenser to the tank of the vehicle with the hydrogen gas being cooled to a predetermined temperature. Therefore, the gas supply system disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2015-158213 includes a refrigerant flow path through which a refrigerant for cooling the hydrogen gas in the dispenser flows, and a refrigerator for cooling the refrigerant flowing through the refrigerant flow path. With this configuration, the hydrogen gas in the dispenser is supplied to the tank of the vehicle while being cooled to a predetermined temperature by the refrigerant flowing through the refrigerant flow path.
Meanwhile, when the hydrogen station disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2015-158213 is stopped, the refrigerator is also stopped. Accordingly, the temperature of the refrigerant in the refrigerant flow path rises due to external heat input. Therefore, when activating the hydrogen station again, it is necessary to cool the refrigerant flowing through the refrigerant flow path to the predetermined temperature before supplying the hydrogen gas from the dispenser to the vehicle. In this case, for example, it is considered to cool the refrigerant flowing through the refrigerant flow path to the predetermined temperature by activating the refrigerator and thereafter to activate the hydrogen station such that the hydrogen gas can be supplied from the dispenser to the vehicle. However, when activating the hydrogen station by such a method, there is a concern that time required for the activation is prolonged because it takes time for the refrigerator to cool the refrigerant.